Boxford VMC190 - Limit switches advice

[swood1]

Hi Paul,

My machine had no switches within the cabinet apart from 2 on the opening doors. I have been thinking about adding a couple more for homing switches but currently need to understand how I get the ones I have added to work correctly in mach4. I was hoping once the switch was made the carriage would stop dead but that doesnt seem the case... I probably need to do some reading up on how to set them up again... I struggle with Mach4 as there seems to be a duplication of information within the software, I dont understand why they had to make it so complicated :(


Regards

Steve

[depronman]

Hi Paul,

My machine had no switches within the cabinet apart from 2 on the opening doors. I have been thinking about adding a couple more for homing switches but currently need to understand how I get the ones I have added to work correctly in mach4. I was hoping once the switch was made the carriage would stop dead but that doesnt seem the case... I probably need to do some reading up on how to set them up again... I struggle with Mach4 as there seems to be a duplication of information within the software, I dont understand why they had to make it so complicated :(


Regards

Steve

I used mach3 for a few years and still do on a lathe but never got involved in mach4 as it was still very immature then
I got sick of mach3 doing silly shit and mach4 not being a viable option went for linuxcnc instead

Now there is a learning curve with any software and linuxcnc is no exception, but the manual is very comprehensive and the people on the linuxcnc forum are very helpful if you ask the right type of question
The step config wizard gets you a basic machine set up very quickly covering axis movement, limit and home switches, EStop, spindle control etc
Anything over and above this is down to Hal and ini file manual updates by the user
The gmoccapy interface is sooooooooo much better than the standard Axis interface and makes the mach interface look a little poor in my eyes, but this is some what subjective as people like what they have and use
Where linuxcnc really scores is cost (free) updates (free and frequent) and it’s rock solid reliability (does not do weird shut in its own)

Back to the issue of home and limit switches
My vmc190 came with home switches (proximity switches) on all three axis
The easiest one to so is on the table X axis. Jog it all the way to the left hand side and the limit switch is visible just under the tin cover for the X axis stepper motor, mine is red in colour

I would be very surprised if boxford made the machine without homing switches
Once homed the ‘soft limits’ effectively work as limit switches

Paul


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